Ancap takes safety show on road

The Hyundai i45 and VW Up have both received the maximum five star rating from Ancap. Photo / Supplied

The Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (Ancap) will participate for the first time as an exhibitor at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney this week.

Held from October 18-28, Ancap will be exhibiting among the world's biggest manufacturers. It will showcase five star safety to show-goers with one of its crash-tested cars on display.

The five-star Hyundai i45 will be the key feature of the Ancap stand but it won't be showroom-detailed model - rather one that has undergone an Ancap frontal offset crash test.

The frontal offset test simulates hitting another car of the same mass travelling at the same speed so 40 per cent of the car, on the driver's side, makes contact with a crushable barrier at 64km/h.

The i45 achieved the maximum five star Ancap safety rating with solid results across all physical crash tests and through the inclusion of safety features including six airbags, electronic stability control, emergency brake assist and seat belt pretensioners.

Another car that also gained five star Ancap rating recently was Volkswagen's small hatchback, Up.

Launched in Australia this month, and under consideration to come to New Zealand, the four-seater provided consumers with class-leading safety including autonomous emergency braking (AEB).

Referred to as City Emergency Braking by Volkswagen, the AEB system has been included as standard across all Up variants.

"Ancap is pleased to see that the Up provides advanced safety features as standard and offers other occupant comforts such as Bluetooth as optional extras," said Ancap chairman, Lauchlan McIntosh.

"It is hard to fathom why features that protect vehicle occupants are sold as optional extras by most manufacturers yet alloy wheels and leather seats, for instance, come as standard.

"The move by Volkswagen to include AEB in the Up as standard across all variants is a welcome change.

"The standard fitment of safety features and safety technologies is something Ancap has been advocating for some time and all manufacturers should follow Volkswagen's lead."

AEB systems use a combination of lasers, radar and cameras to detect an imminent rear-end crash and can automatically apply the brakes of a vehicle. The fast adoption of new technologies like AEB could see the road toll halved by 2020.

AEB is currently being considered by Ancap as a mandatory safety requirement.